Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Vienna Day I

Whoooahhhh. Happy to be home, but oh my, did I ever love Wiener. It is an amazingly wonderful, fantastic, hip, exciting, expressive, beautiful, antiquated, contemporary and well planned city. I had an amazing time and some of the best done european old-school style vegan food.

After a great little hug train starting at my desk and winding its way around the classroom I jumped a cab (the first of three crazy cab rides the weekend was to hand me - on this one, the cab driver commented on my remarkable ability to imitate a pigion. Must have been all of those days standing in Gore Park as a child) and headed for the airport....early me + late plane = a long time to contemplate how cute the three different sizes of stuffed Snowies the airport has to offer. After finally taking off the flight was mega smooth and my pre-departure salad bar adventure stayed right where it was supposed to.

The cabbie who was the commander of our arrival was a chemist from Croatia, and a wonderful sightseeing guide. The dark sky was my back drop for yet another first glance at a city (see Manchester), but the outskirts of Vienna was well lite by a rash of industry and development. Hotel Kugel was an acceptable spot of rest for the two nights stay - the area was FANTASTIC (7th quarter I think ---- wait a second, I am teaching fractions right now and I know damn well that there isn't a 7th quarter.....more like 1 and 3/4. Nice try Vienna). Anyway, there was an inspection of the crocked floors and a homage paid to the glue that was holding the 60's wall paper firmly to the year 2007 - way to go adhesives; food was next on the agenda, and the concerige was able to suggest a great little vegetarian (almost....despite the fish...but it is Europe and I have come to be happy with just about anything close to lettuce as an option at most restaurants) asian place down the street. We found the one and only Bhung Bui after a bit of hunting and enjoyed a really good tofu/veg/ stir fry. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it was satisfying to some hungry bellies and the wine was organic.

Through the frigid wind the way was found and I tooked into bed quick to fall asleep even faster.